Field
The present invention relates to an electrode assembly and a rechargeable battery.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an electrode assembly and a rechargeable battery having a protection tape.
Description of the Related Art
A rechargeable battery can be repeatedly charged and discharged, unlike a primary battery that is incapable of being recharged.
A rechargeable battery with a small capacity is used for a small portable electronic device like a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a camcorder, and a rechargeable battery with a large capacity is widely used as a power source for driving a motor of a hybrid vehicle.
As representative rechargeable batteries, a nickel-cadmium (Ni—Cd) battery, a nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery, a lithium (Li) battery, and a lithium ion (Li-ion) battery exist.
Particularly, the Li-ion rechargeable battery has an operation voltage that is higher by about 3 times that of a Ni—Cd battery and a Ni-MH battery that are widely used as portable electronic equipment power sources.
Further, due to high energy density per unit weight, the Li-ion rechargeable battery has been widely used.
The rechargeable battery generally uses a lithium-based oxide as a positive electrode active material and a carbon material as a negative electrode active material.
In general, the rechargeable battery is classified into a liquid electrolyte battery and a polymer electrolyte battery according to a kind of an electrolyte, a battery using a liquid electrolyte is referred to as a Li-ion battery, and a battery using a polymer electrolyte is referred to as a lithium polymer battery.
Such rechargeable batteries have an electrode assembly in which a separator is interposed between a positive electrode and a negative electrode, and when an active material layer of a positive electrode or a negative electrode is separated from a current collector, charge and discharge efficiency is reduced.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.